A Ghana court on Tuesday ordered the suspension of the country’s embattled football federation, paving the way for its dissolution following explosive corruption allegations.
The High Court of Ghana granted the request of Ghana’s attorney general Gloria Akuffo to suspend the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and its officials.
“GFA has undermined its existence and therefore in the interest of protecting the national interests, we say the attorney general owes the duty to take urgent measures to stop this,” Akuffo said in the country’s capital of Accra.
“The GFA has now become an instrument for self-aggrandisement by people who run it to make themselves rich.”
In an explosive documentary aired last week, a Ghanaian investigative journalist used a hidden camera to allegedly capture federation officials and referees soliciting bribes worth millions of dollars.
After the release of the film, Ghana government announced it wanted to “take immediate action” to dissolve the GFA.
On Friday, the governing body of world football FIFA announced a 90-day suspension of the GFA president Kwesi Nyantakyi.
In the documentary aired last Wednesday, Nyantakyi was accused of requesting $11 million from reporters posing as investors to secure government contracts.
Football is Ghana’s national sport and the revelations have sent shockwaves through the country just under a week before the start of the World Cup finals in Russia.
Ghana’s senior men’s team, the Black Stars, failed to qualify.
